Vikinging for vikings who want to show how vikingey they are

This is another post inspired by threads and conversations on various heathen and pagan fora that I've frequented through the years.

Seeing as most heathens - at least those of my age - were born and raised in an ostensibly christian nation to parents of varying degrees of christian piety, we have all been required to build our heathen lifestyles from scratch, so to speak.

For better or worse, the viking age ended and heathen society gave way completely to christianity. What I mean by that is that there was a long period of history during which heathenry no longer existed. For the UK, that is pretty much from about 1000AD until, at the very earliest, the revival in interest of all things Teutonic and mythological in the nineteenth century.

All contemporary heathens are working paths that either they created for themselves probably sometime in the last 50 years or so, or they have been given their path by someone who did so. Some of these paths have been based purely on the historical and archaeological record, some have been influenced by personal gnosis (UPG) and I imagine some have even been influenced (consciously or unconsciously) by fiction (films, literature and, perhaps others).

A part of that establishment of a heathen path is deciding what values, beliefs and activities are intrinsically heathen or what such things are required to make the practitioner heathen, rather than simply spiritual, pagan or, indeed, any other denomination.

One of the traps that we, as heathens, can fall foul of during this process is falsely attributing values, beliefs or activities as "heathen" purely because they were prevalent around the time period known as "the Viking age". One example of this is people who use Old Norse or Anglo Saxon as a liturgical language. There is no evidence that the original heathens used any special language or turn of phrase when referring to or dealing with their deities, ancestors, wights or any other aspect of their heathenry. They used the same everyday language that today for us, would be English. A better modern interpretation might be to use poetry as a form of heathen spiritual language - as we know that the composition of poetry was highly regarded in the age of our heathen forefathers.

Some might argue that speaking Anglo Saxon or Old Norse might help those involved get into the right frame of mind for dealing with their heathen faith. Much in the way that many people take to dressing up in period garb. I think with both these cases, though, that the danger is that the ancient/dead language and/or the anachronistic clothing draws the focus away from more important matters. It also delineates the time in ritual or when speaking of heathen concepts as being separate to the comparative mundanity of daily life. This is something which wouldn't have been obvious originally. The gods, ancestors, wights and worldview were all a part and parcel of daily life.

I think it is important for me and my heathen path, that rather than trying to mindlessly replicate the actions of my heathen forebearers, I instead need to understand their values and worldview. This will allow me to understand the reasons why they did what they did. Why they saw the world the way they did. Why they valued certain traits and disapproved of others. Then I can take this knowledge and attempt to construct my own, contemporary version of heathenry for application within the modern world.

I hope that the following posts in this blog will help clarify my train of thought as I try to evaluate which aspects of heathenry can be successfully and meaningfully adapted to the modern world.

Heathenry: All form and no content?

The following article was inspired by an experience our hearth had a few weeks ago. We had arranged to meet with people we'd met online at a fairly local moot. While we hadn't met any other members of this group before, we were looking forward to the meet up, as at least one of the attendees, the organiser, had shown themselves to be what we considered a good heathen and the kind of person we'd like to hang out with (not an accolade we bestow lightly).

The gods had other ideas, though. The day of the moot turned out to be one of the first sunny days of the year, spring having sprung a week or two earlier. Due to the nice weather, every man and his dog turned up to the meeting place. This would not, necessarily, be a problem - were it not for the very limited parking available. We drove around for quite some time, but to no avail. More and more people descended upon the area, bringing their unnecessarily large automobiles with them.

So, we left a message stating that, sadly, we wouldn't be able to attend and headed home. When we got back, it turned out the moot organiser had suffered the same problem and had also been unable to attend. Shame, but we all resolved to meet again next time.

All, that was, except one guy. Let's call him 'Bill'. Apparently, Bill had turned up and had been waiting for us all to arrive. Bill felt he had been unfairly put out by our failure to arrive. Despite the heavy traffic (and limited parking) being more than evident and despite our messages of explanation and apology, Bill decided to get massively butthurt over this.

It would seem being left alone on a beautifully sunny day had really aggravated him. Being made to attend a really nice pub with a very nice menu and good range of ales was probably the last straw.

To some extent, I can understand being a little annoyed. What I can't understand is leaving a really immature message on the group's online noticeboard and complaining that the organiser had let him down. I also recall some ad hominem attacks, if I am not mistaken. Seriously, this guy was whining like crazy over one lousy cancelled moot.

Thing is, looking at his profile on social media, he seemed to have given himself a really butch viking-style name (think 'Ragnar Thunderpants, or similar) and seemed to buy into the whole heathen/viking macho ideal. Perhaps not quite full on Brosatru, but getting there.

How can this guy think of himself as a modern, tough, stoic viking and then get really upset about a long drive to a nice pub near a beautiful park that didn't quite go to plan? Does Bill consider that hardship? He should try crossing the Atlantic in a longship...

This really has me worried now that a much greater proportion of the heathen community than I had previously thought are precisely this kind of immature, 'dummies out of the pram' style whinger.

To me, one of the most important things that attracted me to heathenry in the first place was the fact that it actively discouraged this kind of attention-seeking, diva-like behaviour. I'm not saying I want a mindless, Rambo-esque Brosatru hearth or moot, but just no-one that needs suckling before we can get to the proper business of drinking and setting the world to rights.

Too much to ask?

Heathenry: Musings

I've spent some time over the past week or so thinking about heathery.  More specifically,  what does it mean to be heathen?

What is it that defines a person as heathen.  If I am said to be heathen, what does that say about me?

Judging by what can be found on the Internet, these questions are easy to answer.  Often certain traits of people from the viking age are cited as being valued by the modern heathen.

Honesty, self reliance, honour, courage and fortitude are among the usual suspects.  The problem is that none of these traits appear to be in evidence for the vast majority of contemporary heathens that have chosen to give themselves a voice online.

The solution?  Perhaps just evidencing any of those traits in my day to day life.

Be the heathen that heathens claim to be...

Less than ideal job: What would the vikings do?

Here I am, working (unpaid) overtime for a job I loathe, and I can't help but wonder to myself, what would the original norse heathens or those of the Viking age have thought about my situation?

Would they expect me to pull up my big boy pants and simply endure? Putting up with the daily grind, lack of appreciation and depressing work life in the name of supporting my family?

Or perhaps they'd respect me more if I stood up and took action? Maybe working to change the situation here at my workplace, or to go out and try to find another company that will appreciate me better?

What I do understand, is that the raiders known as Vikings were very entrepreneurial sorts and would be looking out for an opportunity to earn fortune and fame, rather than bitching about their situation on their blog. Had they had blogs back then, of course.